What a relief: Rookie Crow named All-Star

Monday

Dec 26, 2011 at 6:13 PM

Mark Schremmer

When 2011 started, Aaron Crow’s role with the Kansas City Royals organization was unclear.

A lackluster 2010 season as a starter with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and High-A Wilmington where he was 9-10 with a 5.73 ERA dropped the former first-round pick from the 40th-rated prospect in baseball to out of the top 100.

Making Kansas City’s 25-man roster out of spring training seemed unlikely. Going on to make the All-Star team seemed impossible.

However, the Washburn Rural graduate flourished as a relief pitcher during spring training, boasting a 2.03 ERA in nine relief appearances. Crow showed enough to earn a bullpen spot on the opening day roster, even though a starting role appears to be the master plan.

"I would never abandon the thought of making him a starter somewhere down the road because his stuff is pretty dynamic," Royals manager Ned Yost said before the season. "We’ll start with him in the ’pen, have some success and go from there."

Armed with a fastball in the mid-90s and a strong slider, Crow’s success in the bullpen was immediate. Typically a starter, the former Big 12 Pitcher of the Year for Missouri dominated early in the set-up role. Crow didn’t allow a run in his first 15 1/3 innings pitched at the big league level and entered the All-Star break with a 2.08 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 43 1/3 innings pitched. He limited batters to a .197 average.

It was enough to earn the rookie a spot as Kansas City’s representative on the American League All-Star roster.

But Crow’s short ride from minor leaguer to major league All-Star even took his father Kevin Crow a little by surprise. He wanted to make sure his wife, Julie, was sure when she gave him the good news.

"She was watching the All-Star selection program when I’d been over visiting with my mom," Kevin said. "She said Aaron made it, but I asked, ‘Are you sure? I don’t believe it.’ Then Aaron called. I was speechless."

Crow didn’t pitch in the game, but even making the roster was a remarkable achievement. Crow joined Ken Berry as the only Topekans in history to make an All-Star team.

After the break, Crow showed signs of fatigue. His ERA ballooned to 4.58 in the second half of the season.

"I need to be more consistent day in and day out," Crow said in September. "I need to pound the strike zone. The most important thing is getting ahead of the hitter. I’ve had trouble with that at times, so I think if I can eliminate that then I will have even more success in the future."

Still, Crow was happy with the success of his rookie season. After all, he did finish his rookie season with a 2.76 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 62 innings of work.

"It’s better than I expected," he said. "The beginning of the season was unreal. The first half of the season was the most fun I’ve had on a baseball field in my entire life. The latter part of the year, I’ve had some struggles, but that’s normal when you’re facing guys of this caliber. For the most part, I don’t think the first year could have gone any better."

Now, Crow turns his attention to trying to break into Kansas City’s starting rotation and help a young team with the likes of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez and Danny Duffy get to the next level.

With All-Star closer Joakim Soria, the emergence of Greg Holland and Louis Coleman and the signing of former All-Star Jonathan Broxton, the Royals have the flexibility to see if Crow can strengthen a starting rotation in dire need of improvement.

Crow said he is comfortable with either role.

"No, it’s up to Dayton (Moore) and Ned (Yost) to make those decisions, so I’ll just do whatever I can, just try to go out every day and perform as best I can and let them decide if they think it’s better for the team for me to be a starter or a reliever," Crow told MLB.com. "So I’ll just leave it in their hands. I’ll just work as hard as I can and put myself in a position where I can force them to make a tough decision."

Mark Schremmer can be reached

at mark.schremmer@cjonline.com.

Follow him on Twitter @MSchremmer.

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